diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e2ae9b790496e5cdd7131000009e13f864741208..1e9427b3a397ecdf9576df4970c8bb988cef4497 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 # ignore everything
-*.*
-# also explicitly ignore the example binary
-example
+*
 
 
 # specify files to track